“The witches of the French Quarter will rise again.” And with those words, World War III has officially begun on The Originals, and the casualties are already mounting. Make no mistake: the witches in the Quarter mean business, and they’re even more terrifying than those other witches on American Horror Story: Coven. (Did you really think wearing all black really makes you a witch?)

The stakes have never been higher for the vampires than in Season 1, Episode 13 (“Crescent City”). The episode saw the return of one Devereaux and the loss of another. It seems when Papa Tunde sacrificed his power, it awakened Monique Devereaux, Sophie’s young niece and Davina’s best friend. (Yes, this means Davina will come back eventually, too!) But Monique was clearly different. She was more powerful, and she had been brainwashed by Celeste and the elders. And by the end of the episode, she had committed her first murder — she killed Sophie! There was lot of blood pouring out of every orifice… it was a gross way to go.

Now, we’re hoping Sophie isn’t really gone for good. Sure, she frequently disappears for unexplained periods of time, but she adds a sense of humor to The Originals. She’s kind of like the opposite of Cami, right? We know enough about supernatural series to know that no one is ever really dead forever — amirite, Celeste? (Well, except for Tim. He’s really dead.)

But Sophie wasn’t the only one put in danger this week. Again, the witches mean business, so they’re going after everyone — the humans, vampires, and werewolves. An elder witch put a hex on Father Kieran and convinced Sophie to drive Tunde’s dagger through Klaus’s heart, the witch Genevieve (the one who did the locator spell for Marcel and Rebekah back in 1919) kidnapped Rebekah, and Celeste put Elijah in a compromising position when she put Hayley’s life in danger and told him he could only save one of them. Surprisingly, Elijah chose to save Hayley (and the baby) from the burning mansion.

Now, the witches have Klaus and Rebekah, and Elijah and Marcel are on the hunt to find them and stop the witches from wreaking havoc in the Big Easy. And judging by the murderous look in Elijah’s eyes, things are about to go down.

It’s refreshing to see the witches keep the vampires on their toes because as much we love the Mikaelsons, they can’t always be on top. Plus, both Rebekah and Klaus fell into the witches’ trap because of their weaknesses. Rebekah will always be the girl who trusts men too easily — we’re looking at you, sexy wolf boy — and Klaus will always let his temper cloud his judgement — using Monique as a prop to get the witches’ attention.

“Crescent City” may have shifted the power toward the witches, but we can’t count out the vampires or the werewolves quite yet. We have a feeling that these two supernatural groups might team up to take down the witches, especially with Hayley be Elijah’s side. We learned that Hayley is actually a werewolf princess — OK, so maybe she’s not a princess, but she is royalty! — when she and Rebekah throw a werewolf party for Hayley’s family, the Crescent Clan. There, Hayley meets the wolf who’s been watching her, and he’s a total hottie. Say hello to Jackson, the werewolf who was supposed to be Hayley’s husband. Awkward. In fact, he’s been “dreaming about meeting” her since he was a kid. Even more awkward.

Jackson tells Hayley that they’re werewolf royalty — cue: Lorde’s “Royals” — and that their marriage was supposed to unite the two werewolf packs and take back New Orleans. Obviously, that didn’t happen. But that doesn’t mean the werewolves have given up hope. All they need is a witch who could break their curse. Hm, if only Sophie was still alive… After Elijah pulled Hayley and Jackson out of the fire, she promised she would find a way to break a curse, but seeing how all the witches are rising up against them, that’s going to be a difficult task.

Meanwhile, Klaus had a humanizing moment in tonight’s episode — you know, before he kidnapped a teenager and found himself with a dagger in his chest. After Father Kieran had been hexed, the elder witch told Cami she would save him if she stabbed Klaus in the chest with the dagger. Cami, being the incredibly dull person that she is, calls Klaus to the church, where he proceeds to try and make amends with her. It turns out Klaus is a really big fan of Father Kieran, and he tries to comfort Cami. When she tells him about the dagger, he then tries to help Kieran kick the hex his own way — and when it doesn’t work, he gets irrational and does things his own way. At least he’s making baby steps, right?

The battle lines were drawn in “Crescent City,” but hopefully Elijah and Marcel will step up to the plate to save Klaus and Rebekah because the witches are going to have some nasty fun with them. You can’t kill an Original, but you can torture them.

$#*! Originals Say

“It’s not too early for scotch, is it?”

“Josh isn’t dead yet? Well, good on him. I love a good survivor story.”

“If there’s a war going on, I want to be on the winning side.”

“Always and forever was the greatest mistake of your life.”

“I just wanted to meet my family. I never thought I’d meet my husband from some weird ass arranged marriage.”

Catch the next episode of The Originals on Tuesday, February 25 at 8 p.m. ET on the CW.

Crystal Bell is an editor at Wetpaint Entertainment and our resident fangirl for all things The Vampire Diaries. Follow her on Twitter and Google+!